Of course, I am honored! And I want to bestow the same on some of my favorite blogs, too.

Essentially this award is like a Meme. There are rules for paying it forward after your blog gets recognized. They are as follows:

1) Select 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award, based on creativity, design, interesting material, and contribution to the blogger community. The blogs can be in any language.

2) Post a link to each blog so that others can visit.

3) Each award-winner has to show the award and link to the blogger that awarded it.

4) The award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show a link to Arte y Pico.

(I would love to post the image/logo, but it seems to be unavailable right now!)

Here are the five blogs I have chosen:

Abby (the) Librarian: I love getting an inside look at life in a children’s room at the library. Abby periodically posts an hour-by-hour description of her life at the library and I love it! Also, she reads some great books and her reviews always make me want to go out and buy the book.

Literate Lives: Karen and Bill share blogging duties and review a wide variety of books. Again, I always want to run out and buy whatever they review. I especially love that they review a lot of non-fiction, because I don’t always know what the newest non-fiction titles are. Plus, they run a great feature about books they read and plan to read aloud in “the pit”, the story area of the library. It’s so much fun to imagine a big group of kids oohing and aahing along with them.

Miss Erin: I want to be Miss Erin, if only I was still a teenager. (I swear, it wasn’t that long ago! My kids still think I look 13!) But Erin reviews books, posts wonderful original poetry sometimes, and always has great author interviews. Plus, she is a readergirlz diva!

My Breakfast Platter: Amy is a fellow 6th grade teacher in Salt Lake City. We have shared ideas and had some great conversations via email. It’s so nice to connect with another teacher, even if they are on the other side of the country! Plus, she shares my philosophy about the power of independent reading.

Shelf Elf: Ok, I am shallow- I love the blog name. How cute is shelf elf? But she also posts great reviews and I usually want to run out and grab the books she posts about. She also posts a lot of news and interesting tidbits from the kidlitosphere and children’s publishing.

Don’t despair if I didn’t choose you. I had the hardest time picking just 5 blogs! But keep in mind I have a whole lot of blogs in my Google Reader feed (an ungodly amount, I tell ya). I read so many blogs and I really love them all!